1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to gate valves used in the manufacture of silicon wafer chips.
2. Related Art
In the manufacture of silicon wafer chips, wafer processing is done within process modules that perform the various processing tasks within a vacuum environment to create circuitry. The process modules are located within clean rooms in order to prevent the accumulation of any amount of foreign material on the chips during manufacture. It is well known the extent to which foreign particles can completely damage a chip.
It is also well known that operation of clean rooms is extremely expensive. In order to maximize efficiency of clean rooms, it is necessary to maximize the quantity of processing equipment within each clean room. To this end, equipment manufacturers are striving to reduce the size of their products. The smaller the size or peripheral equipment, such as related handling equipment, valves, pumps, etc., the more such equipment can fit into a given size clean room.
The present invention is directed to reducing the size of gate valves while at the same time maintaining the power, efficiency, and cleanliness of such valves.